A daddy weekend

P flew to the US on Friday afternoon, leaving me to experience life as a single parent for 9 days.

I say that but of course I’m being flippant and I’m in no way trying to suggest that being in temporary sole charge of a very well behaved child is comparable to a real single parent’s life with the possible emotional complications that having separated or divorced parents may bring.

That disclaimer was a bit clunky, wasn’t it? But you know how the internet is – say something in jest and all it takes is one person to see it the wrong way and start up a twitchfork mob against you. Another disclaimer: yes, I have myself retweeted stuff in outrage against someone saying something stupid but I usually reserve it for when politicians or people who should know better (that ‘or’ is very deliberate) say something out of line.

Anyway, back to the weekend. I was going to cheat and send A off to the in-laws on Saturday to stay over for the weekend while I went off to play football and socialise but plans changed, leaving me with the terrifying prospect of keeping A entertained all weekend. As it turned out, it wasn’t too bad. A went for her riding lesson and we went to view a couple of properties (neither of which were up to scratch, as blogged yesterday). We then went to the football club as A had sounded surprisingly enthusiastic at the prospect of going to watch amateur Saturday league football. As it turns out she decided she was happier sitting in the car with her iPad while I stood in the freezing cold cheering Reigate Priory on. (I should point out that the car was parked a few yards from where I was standing at the side of the pitch.) Back home after the game, we ordered a pizza delivery and ate that while watching The Voice.

Today I played a blinder, if I do say so myself, by taking A swimming. We stayed at the pool for an hour and a half, guaranteeing that she would sleep soundly tonight. I’m tempting fate, I suppose, but as I type, A is absolutely zonked and I don’t expect her to stir until normal wake-up time. I managed to serve up a Sunday roast for tea, to make up for the laziness yesterday, so I’m feeling pretty pleased with how the weekend’s gone. The coming week should be easy by comparison, since A is at school.